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Der jüngste Anstieg der Migration veranlasste mehrere EU-Länder zur Wiedereinführung von Grenzkontrollen, was von benachbarten Staaten kritisiert wird. Slowenien erwägt nun die Wiedereinführung von Kontrollen an den südlichen Grenzübergängen, während sich das benachbarte Kroatien auf den Beitritt zum zunehmend beschränkten...

The UN Secretariat building in New York City. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Peter A Gallo
NEW YORK, Nov 15 2022 (IPS)

The U.S. Government has recently published ‘Engagement Principles’ on Protection from Sexual Exploitation Abuse & Sexual Harassment within International Organizations’, and while any involvement from Member States is to be encouraged, these principles do not address the fundamental need for either deterrence or for accountability.

The concept of a “survivor-centred approach” – sadly – is an irrelevant sound bite to appease a political lobby. Post-incident care and support for the victim is not only admirable but very necessary but serves no deterrent purpose, and any bearing it might have on the prosecution of an offender will be indirect at best.

Nothing done for victims after an incident will prevent future victims being similarly assaulted.
One of the accepted tenets of criminology is that criminal activity is not discouraged by procedures, committees, working groups or focal points, nor is there any deterrent effect in increasing the penalty for anyone convicted of the offence; criminal activity is minimised by maximising the likelihood of the perpetrator being held accountable for their actions. The UN choses to ignore that, and will not acknowledge three basic truths the Member States must recognise:

FIRST: that any sexual assault is a serious criminal offence that should be prosecuted as such.

In the real world, where both a criminal case and a civil one arise from the same event; the civil case will be sisted to give priority to the more important criminal prosecution. The UN, however, does the opposite and insists that their administrative investigation take priority over the criminal investigation of the same incident.

As a result, even where a rape is reported in the UN, the chances of the perpetrator being successfully prosecuted in a criminal court is minimised to the point where the risk is insignificant.

SECOND: that while UN personnel require and deserve the protection of the 1946 Convention on Privileges & Immunities, that Convention does not grant immunity for sexual offences.

Abuse of the concept of immunity has greatly influenced the evolution of the UN culture into one of narcissistic entitlement, where sexual predators believe they can act with impunity.

Functional Immunity was afforded to UN staff members under the Convention which states, very clearly, in Section 18:

Officials of the United Nations shall : (a) be immune from legal process in respect of words spoken or written and all acts performed by them in their official capacity; (Emphasis added.)

Given that any sexual activity – whether consensual, contractual, or coerced – is not part of the “official duties” of any UN staff member; it is self-evident that no immunity can apply in the case of any sexual offence. If such an offence appears to have been committed; the host nation must therefore have jurisdiction over the matter.

The Convention was adopted to protect UN staff against harassment by a hostile government, and in those conditions, there will always be a risk that criminal charges might be fabricated. There is no doubt, therefore that the UN must take an interest in any accusations against staff members, but as soon as their preliminary enquiries establish reasonable grounds to believe that a sexual offence has been committed; the matter should be handed over to local law enforcement immediately – for them to proceed with a criminal investigation.

The Convention was never intended to protect offenders from the consequences of their own criminality. That is made clear in Section 20 which reads:

Privileges and immunities are granted to officials in the interests of the United Nations and not for the personal benefit of the individuals themselves. The Secretary-General shall have the right and the duty to waive the immunity of any official in any case where, in his opinion, the immunity would impede the course of justice and can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the United Nations.

If the Secretary-General can give an example of how the prosecution of a sexual predator could possibly “prejudice to the interests of the UN” – the world deserves an explanation.

The UN interprets the Convention to protect UN staff members from sexual offences even when no staff member is accused of any such thing, as was demonstrated in 2015 by the Organization’s response when French authorities sought to investigate allegations against French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.

The Convention states in Section 21:

The United Nations shall cooperate at all times with the appropriate authorities of Members to facilitate the proper administration of justice, secure the observance of police regulations and prevent the occurrence of any abuse in connection with the privileges, immunities and facilities mentioned in this article.

That is a provision the Secretariat appears to ignore, because “immunity” was cited as the reason why UN staff members could not assist French investigators by introducing them to victims. The UN has never explained how that could be justified.

Immunity was created for the best of reasons, it has now become part of the problem.

THIRD: that ‘self-regulation’ by the UN has clearly been a failure; the Organization cannot properly investigate itself.

What most people fail to appreciate about the corruption in the UN is that it is almost always “procedurally correct” – which may mean the resulting administrative decision cannot be challenged before the UN Dispute Tribunal, it does not make the decision ethical or legitimate – but OIOS investigations will not pursue any such line of enquiry for fear of what it might reveal.

Complaints about malpractices, misconduct, bias or abuses of authority by investigators are common, but are routinely ignored – because there is no independent oversight of OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) and the management of the office is tied up in the same network of mutually supportive patronage that is ingrained in the UN culture.

The OIOS “leadership” is widely believed to do the bidding of the USG/DMSPC in particular, legitimising the most patent retaliation – because the USG/DMSPC protects them from any accountability for their own shortcomings. The former Director of Investigations admitting that their primary objective was simply “to get the Americans off our backs” – for which, naturally, he was promoted.

As for sexual misconduct investigations; the term “survivor-centered approach” makes little sense. It is described as an innovative approach but in any sexual assault, the victim has always been the most important witness – so how exactly were these cases actually investigated in the past?

Post-incident care for the victim has no bearing on the burden of proof. Cases must be proved by established facts, and that requires diligent and competent investigators – not “investigators” promoted for their personal loyalty, or whose misconduct has routinely been overlooked for the same reason.

Gross incompetence by managers, rampant misconduct and corruption anywhere in the UN must be considered serious in its own right, but incompetence, misconduct and corruption in the investigative function is more serious because that facilitates the corruption everywhere else.

Einstein is said to have defined insanity as doing same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, but that has been the UN’s approach to investigating sexual misconduct for the last 20 years.

The solution clearly lies with someone capable of thinking differently – but within the UN culture; anyone who dares to think differently is a dangerous heretic who cannot be promoted.

Peter Gallo is a lawyer and former OIOS investigator, whose disagreements with the Organization began when OIOS sought to demand that as an investigator, he must “never ask questions just to satisfy his curiosity” – a bizarre instruction that the UN did not consider even unusual, despite the fact that no one was ever able to point out a single example of his ever having done so….He has written extensively on the UN’s failure to properly investigate misconduct, been quoted in the media, featured on television documentaries and twice testified before congressional committees on the subject.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The authoritarianism of the establishment has met that of the far-right in Italy, Yanis Varoufakis told EURACTIV in an interview. The minister founded Mera25 in Italy last weekend, to run for the next European elections in 2024 and challenge what he sees as “two authoritarianisms”.

Pour faire face à la concurrence mondiale de demain, l'Europe doit changer de braquet dans l'espace, sous peine d'être dépassée, écrit Alain Rousset, président de la région Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

Elsőfokú figyelmeztetést adott ki a köd kialakulásának a veszélye (50-200 m-es látótávolság) miatt kedden délelőtt 11:00 óráig az egész országra vonatkozóan a Szlovák Hidrometeorológiai Intézet (SHMÚ). Óvatosan közlekedjenek az útnak indulók!

The Czech Republic is considering throwing its hat in the ring to host the UN's COP29 climate summit in 2024, which would put it in contention with a handful of other countries for the massive international conference.

Aujourd’hui dans l’Expresso : le pape intervient dans la crise diplomatique franco-italienne, lutte contre l'immigration irrégulière dans la Manche, politique de cyberdéfense de l'UE & missiles iraniens en Russie.

L'Union européenne a accordé lundi (14 novembre) un don de 100 millions d'euros à la Tunisie, un pays en pleine crise politique et financière.

Serbien und Kosovo bewegen sich am Rande einer gefährlichen Krise, sagte der EU-Chefdiplomat Josep Borrell am Montag (14. November) und forderte beide Seiten auf, ihre Verpflichtungen im Rahmen des von der EU geförderten Dialogs zwischen Belgrad und Pristina zu erfüllen.

La dernière vague de migration pousse plusieurs pays de l’UE à réintroduire des contrôles aux frontières, incitant les États voisins à faire de même. La Slovénie envisage désormais de réintroduire des contrôles au sud, alors que sa voisine, la Croatie, se prépare à rejoindre l’espace Schengen.

Mikulec és Hamran a magyar-szerb határra látogatott. Az energiaválságról fognak tárgyalni kedden az önkormányzatok képviselői a kormánnyal. Módosította az egészségügyi tárca az orvosi szakszervezetnek (LOZ) kínált memorandumát. A LOZ tüntetést hirdetett Pozsonyba a bársonyos forradalom évfordulójára.

Die Innenminister:innen des Vereinigten Königreichs und Frankreichs haben sich am Montag (14. November) darauf geeinigt, ihre Zusammenarbeit zu verstärken, um Asylsuchende zu stoppen, die den Ärmelkanal mit Kleinbooten überqueren.

The EU on Monday (14 November) imposed sanctions on eight more Russians accused of being linked to the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, targeting high-ranking officials of the FSB intelligence service and chemical weapons experts.

A new EU corporate due diligence law must include provisions to ensure that companies which operate in war zones are responsible for their actions, writes Heidi Hautala.

1. Az EU további személyekre és szervezetekre vetett ki szankciókat az Oroszországnak szállított drónok miatt.

Az Európai Unió Külügyek Tanácsa az iráni drónok bevetése miatt az ukrajnai háborúban további két iráni személyt és két iráni szervezetet vett fel az Ukrajna területi egységét, önállóságát és függetlenségét aláásó vagy fenyegető cselekményekért felelősekkel szemben bevezetett szankciós listájára – derül ki az Európai Unió hétfőn közzétett Hivatalos Lapjából.

Az uniós szankciók hatálya alá az Ukrajna elleni háborúban használt pilóta nélküli légi járművek (UAV) fejlesztéséért és szállításáért felelős Iszlám Forradalmi Gárda (IRGC) két parancsnoka, a forradalmi gárda repüléstechnikai egysége (IRGC ASF), valamint az iráni védelmi minisztérium egy, az Oroszországba szállított drónok fejlesztéséért és gyártásáért felelős vállalat, a Qods Aviation Industries kerültek.

Az EU október 20-án vetett ki először szankciókat az iráni drónok szállítása és bevetése miatt. Akkor három iráni férfi, az iráni fegyveres erők vezérőrnagya, ezredese és dandártábornoka, valamint az iráni Shahed Aviation Industries Kutatóközpont került jegyzékbe.

Az intézkedések utazási korlátozásokból, vagyoni eszközök befagyasztásából, valamint pénzeszközök vagy más gazdasági erőforrások tilalmáról rendelkeznek a jegyzékbe vett emberek és szervezetek részére. Jelenleg 196 emberrel és 49 szervezettel szemben vannak érvényben szankciók.

2. Az EU újabb emberekre és egy szervezetre terjesztette ki a vegyi fegyverekkel kapcsolatos szankciók hatályát

Az Európai Unió Külügyek Tanácsa további tíz embert és egy szervezetet vett fel a vegyi fegyverekkel kapcsolatos szankciós jegyzékébe, a megszorító intézkedések olyanokat büntetnek, akik Alekszej Navalnij orosz ellenzéki politikus megmérgezésének ügyében, illetve vegyifegyverek szíriai gyártásában érintettek – közölte az uniós tanács hétfőn.

A Navalnij-üggyel összefüggésben az orosz Szövetségi Biztonsági Szolgálat (FSZB) több munkatársa és magas rangú tisztségviselője, valamint orosz vegyifegyver-szakértők kerültek fel a szankiós listára. A szíriai konfliktussal kapcsolatban az EU a Szíriai Tudományos Vizsgálati és Kutatóközpontot (SSRC), a szíriai vezetés vegyi fegyverek fejlesztéséért felelős fő szervezetét szankcionálta.

A büntetőintézkedések az Európai Unióba való beutazási tilalomra és az unióban tárolt pénzeszközök befagyasztására terjednek ki. Ezenfelül uniós országok állampolgárai és az unió területén bejegyzett szervezetek és bankok nem bocsáthatnak pénzügyi eszközöket a jegyzékbe vettek rendelkezésér. A vegyi fegyverek használata és elterjedése elleni uniós korlátozó intézkedések jelenleg 25 emberre és három szervezetre vonatkoznak.

3. Az EU szankciókat fogadott el Iránnal szemben Mahszá Amíni halálával kapcsolatban.

Az Európai Unió Külügyek Tanácsa további 29 embert és három szervezetet vett fel az iráni emberi jogi jogsértések szankcionálására létrehozott korlátozó intézkedések jegyzékébe, az érintettek Mahszá Amíni fiatal iráni nő letartóztatása utáni haláláért, illetve az eset miatt kirobbant tüntetések véres elfojtásáért felelősek – közölte az uniós tanács.

Az uniós tagállamok külügyminisztereinek brüsszeli ülésén jegyzékbe vett személyek között a Mahszá Amínit letartóztató erkölcsrendészet négy tagja, a belügyminiszter, a bűnüldöző szervek és a Forradalmi Gárda (IRGC) tartományi vezetői, a kiberrendőrség igazgatója, valamint a hadsereg szárazföldi erőinek parancsnoka szerepel.

A megszorító intézkedések hatálya emellett kiterjed a Bászidzs nevű önkéntes félkatonai szervezetre, az Arvan Cloud iráni it-cégre, amely a kormány megbízásának eleget téve korlátozza az internethez való hozzáférést, valamint az állami műsorszolgáltatóra, amely közvetítette a tüntetésekről előállított fogvatartottak vallomástételét — írták.

A büntetőintézkedések az Európai Unióba való beutazási tilalomra és az unióban tárolt pénzeszközeik befagyasztására terjednek ki. Ezenfelül uniós országok állampolgárai és az unió területén bejegyzett szervezetek és bankok nem bocsáthatnak pénzügyi eszközöket a jegyzékbe vettek rendelkezésére. Az iráni emberi jogi szankciórendszer emellett magában foglalja a távközlési eszközök megfigyelésére szolgáló berendezések, valamint a belső elnyomásra felhasználható berendezések Iránba történő kivitelének tilalmát is. A vonatkozó uniós jegyzékben jelenleg 126 ember és 11 szervezet szerepel.

A tanács közleményében leszögezte: az Európai Unió határozottan elítéli és elfogadhatatlannak tartja a tüntetőkkel szembeni erőszakos fellépést. Kiáll az iráni nép mellett, és támogatja a békés tiltakozáshoz való jogot, valamint követeléseik és nézeteik szabad hangoztatását.

 

The post Hármat egycsapásra: az EU kezd belelendülni a szankcionálásba appeared first on .

Russia must take responsibility for the environmental damage caused by its invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv's Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets said Monday at UN climate talks.

Les députés ont donné leur feu vert à une hausse des crédits du ministère de l'Intérieur d'environ 15 milliards d'euros sur cinq ans, lors de l'examen d'un projet de loi de programmation et d'orientation auquel la droite ne fera « pas obstruction ».

The new Italian government's anti-immigration policies could lead to EU infringement procedures if it violated EU and international laws, a leading EU lawmaker on migration and civil liberties has told EURACTIV.

The world’s population will reach 8 billion in the middle of November – a testament to scientific breakthroughs and improvements in nutrition, public health and sanitation. But as our human family grows larger, it is also growing more divided, writes António Guterres.

By Hezri A Adnan and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov 15 2022 (IPS)

The latest annual climate conference has begun in the face of a worsening climate crisis and further retreats by rich nations following the energy crisis induced by NATO sanctions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Copping out again
The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is now meeting in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, from 6 to 18 November 2022.

Hezri A Adnan

COP27 takes place amidst worsening poverty, hunger and war, and higher prices, exacerbating many interlinked climate, environmental and socio-economic crises.

The looming world economic recession is likely to be deeper than in 2008. The likely spiral into stagflation will make addressing the climate crisis even more difficult.

Invoking the Ukraine war as pretext, governments and corporations are rushing to increase fossil fuel production to offset the deepening energy crisis.

Resources which should be deployed for climate adaptation and mitigation have been diverted for war, fossil fuel extraction and use, including resumption of shale gas ‘fracking’ as well as coal mining and burning.

War causes huge social and economic damage to people, society and the environment. The wars in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere impose high costs on all, disrupting energy and food supplies, and raising prices sharply.

Russia’s Ukraine incursion has provided a convenient smokescreen for a hasty return to fossil fuels, as military-industrial processes alone account for 6% of all greenhouse gases.

The future is already here
All these have worsened crises facing the world’s environment and economy. The most optimistic Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenario expects the 1.5°C rise above pre-industrial levels threshold for climate catastrophe to be breached by 2040.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Crossing it, the world faces risks of far more severe climate change effects on people and ecosystems, especially in the tropics and sub-tropical zone.

But the future is already upon us. Accelerating warming is already causing worse extreme weather events, ravaging economies, communities and ecosystems.

Recent floods in Pakistan displaced 33 million people. Wildfires, extreme heat, ice melt, drought, and extreme weather phenomena are already evident on many continents, causing disasters worldwide.

In 2021, the sea level rose to a record high, and is expected to continue rising. UN reports estimate women and children are 14 times more likely than adult men to die during climate disasters.

Popular sentiment is shifting, even in the US, where ‘climate scepticism’ is strongest. Devastation threatened by Hurricane Ida in 2021 not only revived painful memories of Katrina in 2005, but also heightened awareness of warming-related extreme weather events.

Stronger climate action needed
In international negotiations, rich nations have evaded historical responsibility for ‘climate debt’ by only focusing on current emissions. Hence, there is no recognition of a duty to compensate those most adversely impacted in the global South.

Last year’s COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact was hailed for its call to ‘phase-out’ coal. This has now been quickly abandoned by Europe with the war. And for developing countries, Glasgow failed to deliver any significant progress on climate finance.

At COP27, the Egyptian presidency has proposed an additional ‘loss and damage’ finance facility to compensate for irreparable damage due to climate impacts.

After failing to even meet its modest climate finance promises of 2009, the rich North is dithering, pleading for further talks until 2024 to work out financing details.

Meanwhile, the G7 has muddied the waters by counter-offering its Global Shield Against Climate Risks – a disaster insurance scheme.

Get priorities right
What the world needs, instead, are rapidly promoted and implemented measures as part of a more rapid, just, internationally funded transition for the global South. This should:

• replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, including by subsidizing renewable energy generation for energy-deficient poor populations.
• promote energy-saving and efficiency measures to reduce its use and greenhouse gas emissions by at least 70% (from 1990) by 2030.
• implement a massive global public works programme, creating ‘green jobs’ to replace employment in ‘unsustainable’ industries.
• develop needed sustainable technologies, e.g., to replace corporate agricultural practices with ‘agroecological’ farming methods, investment and technology.

Another world is possible
Another world is possible. A massive social and political transformation is needed. But the relentless pursuit of private profit has always been at the expense of people and nature.

Greed cannot be expected to become the basis for a just solution to climate change, let alone environmental degradation, world poverty, hunger and gross inequalities.

The COP27 conference is now taking place in Sharm-al-Sheikh, an isolated, heavily policed tourist resort. Only one major road goes in and out, as if designed to keep out civil society and drown out voices from the global South.

The luxury hotels there are charging rates that have put COP27 beyond the means of many, especially climate justice activists from poorer countries. The rich and powerful arrived in over 400 private jets, making a mockery of decarbonization rhetoric.

Thus, the COP process is increasingly seen as exclusive. Without making real progress on the most important issues, it is increasingly seen as slow, irrelevant and ineffective.

Generating inadequate agreements at best, the illusion of progress thus created is dangerously misleading at worst.

By generating great expectations and false hopes, but actually delivering little, it is failing the world, even when it painstakingly achieves difficult compromises which fall short of what is needed.

Multilateralism at risk
Multilateral platforms, such as the UNFCCC, have long been expected to engage governments to cooperate in developing, implementing and enforcing solutions. With the erosion of multilateralism since the end of the Cold War, these are increasingly being bypassed.

Instead, self-appointed private interests, with means, pretend to speak for world civil society. Strapped for resources, multilateral platforms and other organizations are under pressure to forge partnerships and other forms of collaboration with them.

Thus, inadequate ostensible private solutions increasingly dominate policy discourses. Widespread fiscal deficits have generated interest in them due to the illusory prospect of private funding.

Private interests have thus gained considerable influence. Thus, the new spinmeisters of Davos and others have gained influence, offering seductively attractive, but ultimately false, often misleading and typically biased solutions.

Meanwhile, global warming has gone from bad to worse. UN Member States must stiffen the backs of multilateral organizations to do what is right and urgently needed, rather than simply going with the flow, typically of cash.

Hezri A Adnan is an environmental policy analyst and Fellow of the Academy of Sciences, Malaysia. He is author of The Sustainability Shift: Reshaping Malaysia’s Future.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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